Hot water baseboard style radiator systems are used extensively in residential and commercial buildings. Such systems typically utilize copper pipes having closely spaced aluminum fins (often called “finned tubes”) that run along the length of a wall. The finned tubes are typically covered by a housing or cover panel for decorative purposes, protection of the fins, and to promote convection currents. In operation, hot water flows through the pipes heating the pipes. Heat is transferred from the hot pipes to the fins by conduction. Due to the large surface area of the fins, heat is transferred to the surrounding air. As the air is warmed as it passes between the fins, the warm air rises and the cooler air is drawn toward the finned tubes creating a natural convection current.
The aluminum fins of the finned tube are fixed to the copper pipes through a process known as swedging to provide a tight fit and uniform contact between the fins and the tube thereby securing the fins in place along the pipe and ensuring efficient heat conduction. However, the aluminum fins can often become bent or damaged from impact thereby reducing air flow between the fins which can affect the efficiency of heat transfer from the fins to the surrounding air. Because the fins are fixed to the pipes, the fins are not easily replaceable without replacing an entire section of the finned tube which may extend for many feet. Additionally, finned tubes are typically available only in standard lengths unless the lengths are custom ordered at significantly higher cost than standard lengths. Thus, depending on room size or wall length, the standard length finned tubes may be too long for a particular wall or room, requiring the use of a shorter length standard finned tube than is desired or resulting in the decision to not provide a baseboard radiator on a particular wall. Similarly, when it is desired to move a wall in a residential or commercial building during remodeling where an existing baseboard style radiator is installed, it is often necessary to replace the entire length of the finned tube when, ideally, only a short section would need to be removed or added. Also if it becomes necessary to repair or replace a section of the radiator pipe, it is necessary to either replace the entire length of the finned tube containing the damaged pipe, or it is necessary to cut the fins away to exposed the damaged pipe section so the damaged pipe section can be cut and replaced, leaving a gap in the fins where the fins were cut away, resulting in unbalanced heat delivery.
Accordingly, there is a need for a removable radiator fin assembly which will provide a solution to the foregoing disadvantages of baseboard radiator systems with finned tubes having the fins fixed to the radiator pipes, and which provides better or nearly the same BTUs per hour per foot (BTU/hr/ft) as finned tubes with fixed fins of the same pipe size and fin size.